Bipartisanship

SpaceX may be riding high after the first-ever astronaut launch of its Crew Dragon spacecraft at the weekend, but there’s little time for rest.

On Wednesday, June 3, the SpaceX team will begin its next mission, sending another batch of internet-providing satellites into low-Earth orbit.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Cape Canaveral in Florida before deploying 60 small satellites for the ambitious Starlink project aimed at providing broadband services for customers globally. It currently has a total of 420 satellites in operation as it preps the launch of a private beta of the service in the coming months.

Starlink has, however, been causing concern among astronomers who fear that the satellites’ reflective surfaces will hinder their ability to get a clear view of deep space, and also interfere with radio wavelengths used during their space exploration work. But SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says his team is experimenting with a number of solutions, including a special coating to make the satellites less reflective, and a visor to deflect the rays of the sun.

What to look out for

The excitement around last Saturday’s historic launch is likely to have won SpaceX some new fans. On Wednesday, newbies can enjoy not only the spectacular sight of the Falcon 9 rocket heading to space, but also the incredible moment minutes later when the booster returns to Earth and lands upright on a barge off the coast of Florida. You should also look out for a video of its ship attempting to catch the rocket’s nose cone as it returns to Earth — something easier said than done — as well as the moment the 60 satellites deploy and majestically glide apart.

A group of protesters in Louisville have formed a human shield to protect a police officer after he was separated from his unit.

Images circulating on social media show several black men linked arm-in-arm as they form a human barricade around the lone officer. The men put their own lives in danger as they placed themselves between a growing hostile crowd and the police officer.

The officer was allegedly being threatened by rioters after he found himself separated from his squad during violent protests in the area.

More than 170 businesses have been damaged or lotted and dozens of fires set during the riots following the death of George Floyd.

According to President Trump, up to 80% of rioters in Minneapolis were from out of state. The President said these “organised groups” of protesters have nothing to do with George Floyd and are using his death to stir up racial division and civil unrest.

The black community in Minneapolis has called out ANTIFA for causing “chaos” on the back of Floyd’s death.

“Like I said to all my white brothers and sisters, we appreciate you all being out here and supporting us, but this is not your space. This is not your space. Period. We don’t need this bullsh*t right here.

“Because what our reality is, when this sh*t is all said and done, we wake up, we’re still going to be black in America. That’s nothing against none of you all. That’s not what I’m saying. But we’re not going to allow you all to go up there and start causing chaos and confusion. It’s just not going to happen.”

Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Sunday successfully docked a company-owned capsule carrying a pair of NASA astronauts with the International Space Station, capping a weekend of notable accomplishments that opened a new chapter in commercial space endeavors.

Nineteen hours after a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Saturday from Florida on a historic voyage featuring the first-ever private spacecraft to attain orbit with people on board, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken made more history. They monitored the stately, automated rendezvous of their Crew Dragon capsule with the orbiting international laboratory 250 miles above earth, linking up at 10:16 a.m. ET to mark a new industry-government partnership aimed at revitalizing U.S. space ambitions.

Crucial parts of the trip played out smoothly, from the blastoff to the manual maneuvers near the space station and the seamless docking, culminating with a televised ceremony extolling the accomplishments.

“The whole world saw this mission, and we are so, so proud of everything you have done for our country and, in fact, to inspire the world,” an exuberant Jim Bridenstine, head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, told the crew via a video connection from its Houston mission control center.

Referring to the Covid-19 pandemic and the racial unrest across the U.S., Mr. Bridenstine said the latest successes notched by NASA in partnership with Space Exploration Technologies Corp.—the formal name for Mr. Musk’s company—will help Americans “look at the future and say things are going to be brighter.”

At a later press conference, Mr. Bridenstine said, “This has gone as well as we could have expected it to go.”

The mission’s assortment of firsts is likely to provide momentum for proposed public-private collaborations to return U.S. astronauts to the moon and similar arrangements for exploration of Mars and other commercial ventures throughout the solar system. President Trump has set a 2024 goal for the next moon landing.

NASA envisions a surge in companies hunting for business opportunities beyond the atmosphere. “There are other companies, right now, stepping up to the plate that want to be part of this” new government-industry dynamic, Mr. Bridenstine said.

Such projects still face significant funding and technical challenges, starting with uncertainties about prospects for future corporate profits. According to many experts inside and outside NASA, the agency’s current plans for swiftly getting back to the lunar surface at this point are significantly underfunded.

White House and Pentagon officials view the mission partly as a way to counter civil and military space advances by China and Russia.

SpaceX’s weekend exploits highlighted how far the closely held company has come since its creation as a scrappy startup with a handful of employees working out of a converted warehouse near a strip mall in a Los Angeles suburb.

Around 1 p.m. Sunday—nearly three hours after arriving at its destination—Crew Dragon’s hatch was opened, and the newest inhabitants of the space station crawled through a connecting tunnel to emerge into the $100 billion facility as its newest inhabitants.

“Bob and Doug, we’re glad to have you as part of the crew,” said U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy, the space station’s commander, ringing a traditional ship’s bell to mark the occasion. The arrivals hugged Mr. Cassidy and two Russian crew members already in orbit.

Mr. Hurley, dressed in tan pants and a blue, short-sleeved polo shirt with the mission’s logo, said, “We’re just really glad to be on board this magnificent complex.”

On Saturday the crew underwent final medical checks, received weather and other briefings and then rode to the pad in a white, electric-powered sedan built by Tesla Inc., another of Mr. Musk’s companies. The launch was the first to blast human beings into space from a U.S. location in nine years, since NASA’s geriatric fleet of space shuttles was retired.

The technically smooth countdown at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center had its share of suspense, though, as weather forecasts predicted only a 50-50 chance of acceptable conditions, with rain in the vicinity. Dark, towering clouds and rain menaced the 230-foot rocket during earlier portions of the countdown, but the weather improved dramatically about an hour before launch.

Photo: Astronauts Doug Hurley, right, and Bob Behnken, second from the right, join the crew at the international space station. – NASA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

NASA will provide live coverage of prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight on Wednesday, May 27, carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the International Space Station.

NASA and SpaceX are targeting 4:33 p.m. EDT May 27 for the launch of the first commercially-built and operated American rocket and spacecraft carrying astronauts to the space station. NASA and SpaceX will provide joint, live coverage from launch to arrival at the space station.

Full mission coverage will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website, as well as numerous other platforms. The launch broadcast commentators are Marie Lewis, Dan Huot, Gary Jordan, Derrol Nail, and Tahira Allen from NASA, and Lauren Lyons, John Insprucker, and Jessie Anderson from SpaceX, with special guest host and former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin. Postlaunch coverage commentators are Leah Cheshier, Courtney Beasley, Gary Jordan and Dan Huot from NASA, and Kate Tice, Siva Bharadvaj, and Michael Andrews from SpaceX.

Prelaunch coverage also includes a special performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Grammy Award-winning singer Kelly Clarkson.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and is scheduled to dock to the space station at 11:39 a.m. Thursday, May 28.

This will be SpaceX’s final test flight for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and will provide critical data on the performance of the Falcon 9 rocket, Crew Dragon spacecraft, and ground systems, as well as in-orbit, docking, and landing operations.

The test flight also will provide valuable data toward certification of SpaceX’s crew transportation system for regular flights carrying astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX currently is readying the hardware for the first space station crew rotational mission, which would happen after data from this test flight is reviewed for certification.

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, all media participation in news conferences will be remote. Only a limited number of media will be accommodated at Kennedy. For the protection of media and Kennedy employees, the Kennedy Press Site News Center facilities will remain closed to all media throughout these events.

To participate in the briefings by phone, reporters must e-mail ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov no later than two hours prior to each event.

The deadline for media to apply for accreditation for this launch has passed, but more information about media accreditation is available by emailing ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov.

This test flight is a pivotal point in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which is working with the U.S. aerospace industry to launch astronauts on American rockets and spacecraft from American soil to the space station for the first time since 2011.

The goal of the Commercial Crew Program is to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station. This could allow for additional research time and increase the opportunity for discovery aboard humanity’s testbed for exploration, including preparation for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.

For launch countdown coverage, NASA’s launch blog, and more information about the mission, visit:

Photo: NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, are seen as they depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A during a dress rehearsal prior to the Demo-2 mission launch, Saturday, May 23, 2020.Credits: NASA/ Bill Ingalls

The two astronauts who will end a nine-year launch drought for NASA arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, exactly one week before their historic SpaceX flight.

It will be the first time a private company, rather than a national government, sends astronauts into orbit.

NASA test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken flew to Florida from their home base in Houston aboard one of the space agency’s jets.

“It’s an incredible time for NASA and the space program, once again launching U.S. crews from Florida and hopefully in just a week from about right now,” Hurley told reporters minutes after arriving.

Hurley was one of the four astronauts who arrived at Kennedy on July 4, 2011, for the final space shuttle flight, “so it’s incredibly humbling to be here to start out the next launch from the United States.”

“We feel it as an opportunity but also a responsibility for the American people, for the SpaceX team, for all of NASA,” Behnken added.

The two are scheduled to blast off next Wednesday afternoon atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, bound for the International Space Station. They’ll soar from the same pad where Atlantis closed out the shuttle program in 2011, the last home launch for NASA astronauts.

Since then, the only way to the space station for astronauts has been on Russian rockets launched from Kazakhstan.

Hurley and Behnken still don’t know how long they’ll spend at the space station: anywhere between one and four months. Only one American is up there right now — astronaut Chris Cassidy — and could use a hand. Hurley said he got an email from Cassidy on Tuesday night in which he wrote that “he’s looking forward to seeing our ugly mugs on board.”

Greeting the astronauts at Kennedy’s former shuttle landing strip were the center’s director, former shuttle commander Robert Cabana, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

“You really are a bright light for all of America right now,” Bridenstine told them.

The welcoming committee was reduced drastically in size because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. There were no handshakes for the astronauts, who did not wear masks but kept their distance at separate microphones. Cabana and Bridenstine wore masks except while addressing the crowd; so did the approximately 20 journalists standing more than 20 feet (6 meters) away.

During these tough times, Bridenstine said, “this is a moment when we can all look and be inspired as to what the future holds.”

NASA’s commercial crew program has been years in the making. Boeing, the competing company, isn’t expected to launch its first astronauts until next year.

As the trailblazers, Hurley and Behnken are establishing new prelaunch traditions. They shared two at Bridenstine’s request Wednesday.

Hurley, a former Marine and fighter pilot, followed military tradition and put a mission sticker on the SpaceX flight simulator in Houston on Tuesday, after completing training. Behnken, an Air Force colonel, followed Russian custom and planted a tree. He had help back home from his wife, who’s also an astronaut, and their 6-year-old son.

“My son will always have that lemon tree that he was a part of planting,” Behnken said. “Hopefully, it makes it through Houston’s hot summer this year and becomes a tradition for some other folks as well.”

Photo: Workers stand on scaffolds near the top of the 526 ft. Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center to spruce up the NASA logo in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on May 20, 2020. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Apple Inc. AAPL 1.94% and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG 2.42% Google released technology Wednesday to help governments track the spread of Covid-19 through apps that notify users if they have been exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.

The tech giants, which make the world’s dominant smartphone operating systems, jointly developed the protocol for apps that can use Bluetooth signals from mobile devices to identify those that have been near each other.

U.S. states including North Dakota, Alabama and South Carolina, as well as 22 countries, have requested and received access to the newly released technology, the companies said.

The technology, which was previously released in beta versions, is intended to complement health workers’ use of conventional means to trace infected people’s contacts. The apps may need a high level of user adoption to effectively track Covid-19 outbreaks, public-health experts say.

Though Apple and Google are providing tools for developers, they aren’t releasing their own exposure-notification apps.

“We’re hoping that public health will find this tool helpful in improving speed and resources,” said a spokeswoman for the companies’ joint effort.

When two devices using apps based on the Apple-Google protocol come near each other, they exchange “keys,” or digital codes, through a Bluetooth signal. An app user who tests positive for Covid-19 can choose to share his or her diagnosis with public-health officials through the app, then upload the keys that his or her app has sent recently. The app will notify users who were exposed, so they can get tested.

This technique may help public-health departments track contact between strangers—a type of interaction that can often elude contact tracers, who must rely on an infected person’s memory to determine possible exposures.

Creating exposure-notification technology is a challenging and unprecedented endeavor, one undertaken by academic researchers and various private companies.

Apple and Google will prohibit apps that use their protocol from collecting a device’s location history. Some public-health agencies are opting not to use the companies’ technology because of that restriction, and instead are building apps that can use GPS location data.

Apple and Google have consulted with public-health agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. Earlier this month CDC released guidelines for contact-tracing apps, recommending functionality similar to what Google and Apple have designed.

In response to feedback, the tech giants have chosen to let health agencies customize a number of features, including what degree of proximity and length of exposure constitutes an exposure event. Public-health authorities may also contact exposed users through the app, using contact information that mobile-device users voluntarily provide.

To take advantage of the Apple-Google technology, each state or national government should commission a developer to build its official app.

Photo: Though Apple and Google are providing tools for developers, they aren’t releasing their own exposure-notification apps. – HECTOR RETAMAL/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen kicked off her second term by doubling down on her strategy for boosting the island democracy’s ability to resist coercion from China, pledging to further revamp the economy, strengthen the military and deepen ties with friendly countries.

In her inaugural address on Wednesday, Ms. Tsai reiterated Taiwan’s rejection of China’s efforts to assimilate the island, which Beijing claims as its territory. But she offered to work with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to stabilize relations in ways that respect Taiwan’s democracy and sovereignty—conditions that China has previously rejected.

“Both sides have a duty to find a way to coexist over the long term and prevent the intensification of antagonism and differences,” Ms. Tsai said.

Ms. Tsai won re-election by a landslide in January on a pitch to defend Taiwan’s democracy by enlarging the island’s international presence and reducing its economic dependence on mainland China, its biggest trading partner.

Taiwan’s standout success in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic has bolstered the profile of the island of nearly 24 million people, a boon for Ms. Tsai’s agenda. Taiwanese authorities had reported 440 coronavirus infections and seven deaths as of Wednesday.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office rejected Ms. Tsai’s conditions for dialogue, saying she and her ruling party, which advocates a Taiwanese identity separate from China, have antagonized Beijing by refusing to acknowledge that Taiwan and the mainland are part of “one China.”

“We definitely won’t leave any space for separatist activities seeking ‘Taiwan independence’ in any form,” the office said in a statement responding to her speech.

The exchange underscores the fraught nature of ties between China and Taiwan, which have plunged to new depths in recent months as each side accused the other of exploiting the coronavirus pandemic for political gain.

In Taiwan, public resentment against China simmered as Ms. Tsai’s government complained about Beijing using its influence at the World Health Organization to exclude Taipei from the United Nations health agency’s annual policy-setting assembly and many of its technical meetings. Beijing has criticized Taipei’s efforts to participate in WHO activities as an attempt to assert independence.

Ms. Tsai’s speech indicates that she is content to maintain the current state of relations with Beijing while she focuses on her domestic and foreign-policy agenda, said Yen Chen-shen, an international-relations researcher at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan.

“She’s essentially trying to avoid creating new problems for Beijing and not give them any excuse for using force against Taiwan,” but she isn’t likely to make concessions to improve ties, Mr. Yen said.

Tensions have simmered since Ms. Tsai first took office in 2016, beating out her main rival from the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, which was advocating friendlier ties with China. Beijing sought to pressure her administration, sending warplanes and naval vessels to circle the island during military exercises, curbing Chinese travel to Taiwan, poaching Taipei’s diplomatic allies and curtailing the island’s participation in international organizations.

Such pressure seeded indignation among many Taiwanese—sentiment that helped Ms. Tsai secure a record tally of nearly 8.2 million votes during January’s presidential election.

Opinion polls suggested that Ms. Tsai’s victory stemmed in large part from widespread sympathies for anti-Beijing protesters in Hong Kong, which China governs under the “one country, two systems” framework of partial autonomy. The Communist Party has proposed using this framework to assimilate Taiwan.

“We will not accept the Beijing authorities’ use of ‘one country, two systems’ to downgrade Taiwan and undermine the cross-strait status quo,” Ms. Tsai said in her speech Wednesday.

The opposition Nationalist Party echoed Ms. Tsai’s rejection of the “one country, two systems” formula but blamed her for souring relations with Beijing. “In today’s speech, we also can’t see any future plans for rebuilding mutual trust across the Taiwan Strait,” Nationalist Party Chairman Johnny Chiang said.

In her address, Ms. Tsai committed to pursuing trade pacts and other cooperation with the U.S., Japan and European countries, while spurring industrial development in sectors like medical technology, cybersecurity and renewable energy.

She also said she would strengthen Taiwan’s defenses, including its ability to wage asymmetric warfare.

Ahead of Ms. Tsai’s speech, guests at the inauguration ceremony were shown congratulatory messages from Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and political dignitaries from friendly countries, including U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“The United States has long considered Taiwan a force for good in the world and a reliable partner,” Mr. Pompeo said in a statement, read aloud by a Taiwanese official. “I am confident that, with President Tsai at the helm, our partnership with Taiwan will continue to flourish.”

U.S. deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger separately contributed a video message, delivered in Mandarin, that was laced with thinly veiled snipes at China’s Communist leadership. “Taiwan has shown the world that the spirit of freedom and democracy aren’t just ‘American’ or ‘Western,’ but are also universal,” he said.

Mr. Pottinger made a pointed reference to Chinese astrophysicist and dissident Fang Lizhi, who was accused by the Communist Party of fanning a wave of student unrest in China that culminated in the 1989 pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square.

“Democracy, like physics, can’t be divided between ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ types,” Mr. Pottinger said, invoking what he said was a quotation from Mr. Fang about how he studied neither “Eastern physics” nor “Western physics,” but simply physics.

The U.S. messages drew derision from Beijing. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman accused Washington of having “seriously interfered in China’s internal affairs” and warned that Beijing would take “necessary countermeasures” in response.

Photo: President Tsai was inaugurated for a second term at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei on Wednesday. – TAIWAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE/REUTERS

The first visit to Kabul by Washington’s peace envoy since Afghanistan’s squabbling political leadership reached a power-sharing agreement comes amid increased violence blamed mostly on an Islamic State affiliate that has been targeted in stepped-up U.S. bombing.

Zalmay Khalilzad, in a flurry of tweets Thursday, told of his meetings in Doha earlier in the week with Taliban representatives and on Wednesday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and fellow leader Abdullah Abdullah. All were aimed at resuscitating a U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed in February.

Khalilzad returned to Washington late Wednesday.

Khalilzad called for a reduction in violence by all sides in Afghanistan’s protracted conflict that has kept America militarily engaged for 19 years. He also said too much time has been wasted getting to the second and critical phase of the peace deal, which calls for talks between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s political leadership.

Abdullah will head those efforts as part of the deal he signed with Ghani to end their monthslong dispute over who won Afghanistan’s presidential election last September. He conceded the win to Ghani but as part of a power sharing agreement.

U.S. President Donald Trump said again last week that American soldiers have wrongly been tasked with policing the country and called on Afghanistan to step up.

The U.S. has about 12,000 soldiers deployed to Afghanistan, split between counter-terrorism and the NATO-led Resolute Support’s 16,500 troop mission, which trains and aids Afghanistan’s National Security Forces. Washington currently pays about $4 billion annually to keep Afghanistan’s military in fighting form.

U.S. Department of Defense officials have told The Associated Press their biggest worry in Afghanistan is an increasingly active IS affiliate headquartered in the east. The group has ties to Middle Eastern affiliates as well as militant groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Chinese Uighur group, East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, say the IS affiliate in Afghanistan has been linked to foiled plots to attack America in recent years. The U.S. also blamed IS for a brutal attack on a maternity hospital earlier this month in Kabul that left 24 people dead, including two infants and several mothers.

The increased IS activity in Afghanistan has added urgency to U.S. efforts to resuscitate the peace deal, which commits the Taliban to fight terrorist groups in Afghanistan. The same Department of Defense officials said they want the Taliban in the battle to rout IS from Afghanistan.

Without intra-Afghan negotiations, the cease-fire Washington wants between the Taliban and the government won’t happen .

Taliban representatives say a cease-fire will be on the agenda in any intra-Afghan talks, which were to start by mid-March. The delay has been blamed on Afghanistan’s squabbling leadership in Kabul and disruptions in prisoner releases, which were promised as part of the peace deal ahead of intra-Afghan negotiations.

In his tweets, Khalilzad called for the prisoner release to be completed. He also reiterated he is seeking Taliban assistance with U.S. citizens missing in Afghanistan, including U.S. contractor Mark Frerichs who disappeared in January. Several Taliban leaders contacted by The AP said they are not holding Frerichs and have told Khalilzad repeated times.

Suhail Shaheen, Taliban spokesman in Doha, said Wednesday the Taliban are committed to the deal and demanded its prisoners be released.

Photo: In this May 20, 2020, photo, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, and fellow leader under a recently signed power-sharing agreement, Abdullah Abdullah, center, hold a meeting with U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad aimed at resuscitating a U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed in February, at the Presidential Palace, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (The Presidential Palace via AP)